Any comments on the SX40 will be pure speculation. It seems it will have
a reduced resolution of 12MP. This is probably good news. I don't know if it
will use a CCD sensor like previous SXxx models or a CMOS sensor as
used on many of the newer cameras.

Hopefully it won't suffer from the very severe colour aberration problems
that afflicted the SX30 IS. See the outdoor shots in the Steve's review.

..for me the decision to buy it will depend on:
1) the noise in the pics between 100-400 ISO,
2) the low light performance, as I take many pics indoors and in DK there are several months with little light.
3) Hot Shoe for external flash.
4) Decent Auto mode, until I will get used to P or others.
5) IS , which should be already very good, as I read.
6) Options (not important) like burst shooting mode, and decent video in HD
7) Improve AF, because I read that is "hunting" a bit too much.

I do not expect the perfect cam, but an improvement for the "bad" things in the SX30IS.

I returned the Fuji HS20, because I could not manage to have constant IQ, not the cam's fault, but it was not for "beginners".